Transmission Fluid on V8 AWD - Drain or Drop Pan??

[phwarren]

Greetings all:

I have a 2000 Explorer Limited Ed. with V8 and AWD. I have 32K miles on it, and the maintenance schedule said to change the tranny fluid at 30K. I do have the service manual which shows how to drop the pan and change the filter. Here are my questions:

Do I need to drop the pan and change the filter every 30K miles?? Or can I just drain the fluid out and refill it??

To refill the tranny fluid, do I pour the new fluid in the dipstick location in the engine compartment??

Is flushing the entire system necessary?? Does anyone know of a flushing kit that I could flush the entire system at home??

Anyone who could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Phil

 

[rgiles]

I don't think it's a requirement to change the filter. I would follow the service manual procedure to be safe.

What Ford would probably do is use a machine to flush all the old fluid and replace it with new without dropping the pan. This involves removing the lines to and from the cooler. If you want to do this yourself you can disconnect the pressure line from the cooler and pump the fluid out and replace it through the dip stick fill hole at the same rate it pumps out. This usually requires you to start and stop the engine multiple times, measuring how much fluid pumped out and replacing that much fluid back in. You can probably swap out the fluid in this manner about 2-4 quarts at a time. Just look at your fluid capacity and do this procedure until you have pumped out this much fluid and replaced the same amount. You then have to make sure the level is correct once you connect the cooler line back up.

It's a pain but can be done.